Apple has announced that the iPad won't be available to customers in the UK -- or anywhere else outside of the US -- until the end of May.

Originally the iPad was set to debut internationally at the end of April. Here's what Apple have said in a statement.

"Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.

"Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason -- the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far."

We expect potential purchasers in the UK won't be pleased to learn that reason.